The Captain and the Hand
by Frodo'sPen
Summary: "Have you ever had to…seduce someone in the line of duty?" she asked..."It's happened," he said. "The last time…well, that's how I ended up with Kay-Too...They called her the Emperor's Hand." On the way to Scarif, Cassian recounts the seduction of a young Imperial agent who would eventually become famous in her own right. Mixed Legends and canon.
1. Prologue

**The Captain and the Hand**

 **Rating:** T

 **Disclaimer:** Until someone hires me to write fanfiction like a proper _Star Wars_ novelist, I own nothing and am free to distribute to you for…free.

 **Summary:** On the way to Scarif, Cassian recounts the story of how he met Kay-Too.

Prologue

"Have you ever had to…seduce someone in the line of duty?" she asked, hoping to pass the time. There wasn't much of it left, but just then, it seemed to fill the whole room. She didn't want to feel it passing.

That wasn't exactly a story he wanted to tell her, she could tell by the way he frowned at his blaster, intent on cleaning it for the fourth time since they'd boarded the shuttle.

She returned to obsessively checking her own weaponry, knowing not to press it, but unwilling to actually retract the question. the awkward silence mixed with the sense of a ticking bomb for possession of the air, and she wondered how the others were bearing it.

"It's happened," he said at last. "The last time…well, that's how I ended up with Kay-Too."

"What does he have to do with it?"

"He belonged to her first. They called her the Emperor's Hand."


	2. Blackheart

Chapter 1 – Blackheart

He had some idea what to look for. He knew she would be on Coruscant, and he had a rough physical description. Getting in had been the bigger problem. Finally, after a lot of sighing and unnecessary warnings, Senator Organa had talked Mon Mothma into letting him bring Cassian as his attaché, which was convenient for everybody, since it meant Alderaan would also foot the bill.

He wasn't used to this sort of work. Spying was one thing, but the clothes they had him in were _uncomfortable_. Most of his informants weren't the sort one found in Imperial palaces. He ran a hand across his chin for the hundredth time, wincing at the smoothness of it. It didn't feel like his face.

And shouldn't, he remembered. Tonight, he wasn't Captain Cassian Andor, he was Cass Atreides, temporary support staff to Senator Bail Organa, the usual assistant being on leave. Why? He hadn't been told. Family emergency, he'd gathered, but then it fell out of the realm of his need-to-know, and he was here at Senator Organa's disposal, after all, not the absent assistant's.

Bail Organa was one of those quirky senators who didn't require a lot of attending to, and just now "Cass" was free to wander. He scanned the crowd, hoping his eyes betrayed only the mild fascination of a junior administrator with a sudden promotion.

When a droid approached with a tray of drinks, he accepted in the name of camouflage. He'd learned a long time ago how to make one drink last the night and look like it hadn't. He tipped the glass to his lips, its fiz bubbling against the smooth skin, and when he'd lowered this rim out of his line of vision, he saw her.

She wore white. A clinging, less adorned piece than those favored by most of the assembled crowd, it nonetheless drew the eye. The high neck clasped with silver, and the fabric fell from there to hug along her modest, but nevertheless graceful, curves, until it cinched again at her waist. The skirt fell from a silver belt in two long panels, leaving her long legs bare at the sides.

She wore bracelets, and earrings, and her hair was tied back in ripples of luxurious auburn curls, all knotted together at the base of her skull. A second glance at her jewelry, particularly the band which encircled one forearm, gave Cassian the distinct impression that none of it was merely decorative.

Her drink was, though. After several minutes of careful observation, he realized she was employing the same trick he was. All thoughts of waiting until her guard was down would have to be abandoned.

He left his drink on a passing tray and moved her way, and didn't pretend to be idle about it. The best lies were cloaked in truth, after all, and she would see through his ruse even if no one else did. He approached her head on, letting his intentions, for that night at least, smolder, and she, meeting the challenge, set down her drink on a nearby cart and held his eye.

She waited for him, and he enjoyed the confidence this showed. Now, mere centimeters from her porcelain face, he found he wasn't quite sure how to begin.

But she had no business knowing that. "Cass," he introduced himself, bending to kiss her hand.

"Mara," she said as he rose. "You are with Organa's troop?"

He thought about reciting the story of the sad assistant with the family emergency, but thought better of it. She didn't care. He smiled instead, just out of one corner of his mouth. "For today. And you?"

She raised on eyebrow, but offered him a smile as well. "I enjoy good parties."

It was a lie, or at least, it wasn't as much of a truth as she would have him believe. A moment's closer study told him two things: that he was a welcome distraction, and that it was not the parties she enjoyed so much as her place at them. This was a woman who enjoyed having a purpose in life. A purpose and a home.

Cassian noted the first piece of information with satisfaction, and filed the second away for later.

"Do you dance?" he asked.

She laughed, as if he'd just told a joke, and at his frown, explained, "You've never been to Coruscant, have you? Only the Emperor's personal dancers wear this uniform." She indicated her dress. "What about you?"

He titled his head to the side. "I confess I'm out of practice."

"Then I won't call your bluff." She reached for his hand. "In this crowd, no one will notice if you stumble."

He accepted her hand and led her out into the throng. As his hand glided perfectly into the small of her back, he said, "With you as my partner, I very much doubt that."

As it turned out, Cassian could dance. This wasn't his first undercover ball, and he was a fast learner. He was grateful for the lull in conversation it afforded as well. Mara seemed disinclined to further small talk, and he silently confessed he liked that about her. This was not his favorite form of interrogation, with all its corners. The other way, the bloodier way, was at least more direct.

As Mara bent and turned in time with him, her concentration split between coordinating her own graceful movements (it wasn't a thoughtless grace, he noted; she was aware of exactly where she was putting every millimeter of herself at every moment), Cassian noted a rise in his heart rate that couldn't be put down to either the exertion or the danger he was putting himself in. He had a moment of near panic (during which he nearly dropped her) at the thought that _she_ might be seducing _him_. It was too late to back out now, however, and when, later, they were in her quarters, and she had jumped up into his arms to straddle him where he stood, he was not at all unwilling to hold her there, strong hands clasped around her slim thighs, the folds of her gown having made way for him. Her eyes darkened to evergreen, and her lips descended down on him, and both were lost to the darkness they made for some time after.


	3. Nero

Chapter 2 – Nero

 _Mara._

She blinked awake. Things to attend to. Time to start the day. She didn't like being idle anyway. If Mara found one thing easy in life, it was waking up.

The light filtering into her quarters was just strong enough to tell her morning was sufficiently underway, and her companion was still there, comfortably asleep.

Well, that wouldn't do. Reaching lazily for the bedside table, she pressed a small button, then rolled over to rest a hand gently on the man's bicep.

She liked that he wasn't particularly formed. There was an angularity to him that was pleasing, a grace layered over strength. He had a watchfulness in his eyes that she knew mirrored her own. Yet, last night, when he'd been inside her, the shield had come down just for a moment, and though she hadn't been looking for it, it staggered her just in the moment before she went over the edge.

"Cass," she said softly, stroking.

He came awake quickly, and the shades fell over his eyes as he looked around the room, and at her, and eventually settled into remembrance.

He opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted.

"Good Morning, Mistress Jade," a synthetic accent called out.

"Good Morning, Kay-Too," she called back, rolling away from her visitor and out of bed. "I'll skip breakfast, thank you. Do you have the report?"

"Allow me to point out that you haven't eaten a morning meal in precisely thirteen days, and you were specifically instructed after your last-"

"Can it, Kay-Too," Mara mumbled over a yawn, stretching.

"At least have a protein brew," the droid said, shoving a glass in her face. His other arm came up holding the datapad she'd requested. "You'll need to replenish your electrolytes after your activities last night with this one."

Mara accepted the datapad and shoved the glass aside. From the bed, Cass was staring up at the droid, mouth bent slightly upwards in amusement. This did not seem to register with Kay-Too.

"You know, he works for Senator Organa."

"I'm aware of that, Kay-Too."

"There's at least a forty percent change he's spying on you."

"Everyone's spying on _someone_ , Kay-Too," Mara said wryly, grateful not for the first time that her secrets were all safely locked inside her head. Even Kay-Too didn't know all of them.

 _Mara._

"Mistress Jade-"

"That'll be all, Kay-Too. I'll call you when my meeting's done."

Reluctantly, the droid took his leave, not without a last glance at Cass that managed to convey a blunt metallic loathing.

Mara sat down on the bed as Cass rearranged himself to sit back against the headboards.

"I've never heard a droid talk back to its master like that before," he observed.

She waved a hand dismissively. "I've been reprogramming him. Admittedly, it isn't going very smoothly."

Cass smiled at her, though it was somewhat muted by the frown that still wrinkled his forehead. He offered no further comment on the droid, but after a moment said, "You mentioned something about a meeting?"

Alert once more, Mara answered, "Yes, and I'm sure Organa is wondering where you are."

"Not likely," Cass said, standing as she moved off the bed to make way for him. He did not stretch, as other men might have done, but he made a quick and efficient survey of the room, locating his clothes. She watched him in mild admiration. No regrets on this morning. But then, regrets were not Mara's style. She usually didn't have time for them.

Trousers securely on, he turned to her. His shirt hung in crumpled folds from his hand. The telltale dress clothing would turn a few heads when he left her quarters, no doubt. He wasn't the first man to have a dalliance with one of the Emperor's dancing girls, though most weren't quite that bold. She wondered if she should call Kay-Too back to escort him. But then, it would be more interesting to see if he actually knew his way around the Imperial Palace unaided.

"We'll be here at least a few more days," he said.

 _Mara._

She blinked, then nodded. "I expect I'll be here as well."

He smiled again before leaving her, but there was something sad in it.

 _**RogueLegends**_

"Success?" Bail Organa asked, falling into step behind him.

Cassian shrugged one shoulder. "I suppose that depends on your definition." A quick glance at Organa told him the man was uncomfortable, and he remembered belatedly that the senator could be rather conservative. He sighed. "I've laid the groundwork. It'll take time. It may be best if we didn't talk about this while we're on Coruscant."

"I've spent a good deal of my life in this city, young man," Organa chided him. "I know where the traps are. In a city this large, it's impossible to lay them in every corner."

Cassian sighed again. "I meant no disrespect."

"And I have taken none. However, remember that this game of smoke and mirrors I have been playing a lot longer than you. You're on my turf now, Andor. We both want the same thing. Now, trust me."

Cassian nodded and lowered his voice. "She's definitely our girl. I've never heard of a dancer who had morning meetings before."

Organa chuckled. "Everybody is more than once sort of person here. The dancers are all – at _best_ – bodyguards, and no one pretends anything else. But your girl is an assassin of the highest order, if the stories are to be believed. Watch your back."

Cassian didn't point out that watching his back was his mantra.

"Now, I have a meeting with a small coalition of planets from our sector to discuss trade routes. At this time, a good secretary would accompany me and be taking notes. I am perfectly happy to pretend that you are _not_ a very good secretary. You have nothing more pressing with which to occupy yourself, I suppose?"

Cassian shook his head. "Not until tonight."

"Good. Then when you've cleaned up from what we're going to call a hangover, I expect you in the thirty-eighth floor conference room. You can make yourself useful and maintain your cover at the same time. And yes, it will be boring."

Cassian left him at the wing housing their guest quarters. There were a good deal too many holes in time to fill in this game, he decided. While he didn't exactly look forward to the coming evening or the task at hand, it would at least be more pleasant than a pack of aged, arguing politicians. And the scenery would be better too, he suspected.

 _**RogueLegends**_

It wasn't what he would have thought. The gown and its accessories were gone. She wore a simple shirt and trousers. A jacket hung over the back of a chair. Snug against her forearm, held in place by an armband reminiscent of the bracelet she'd worn the night before was an armband that must have been custom-made. Tucked inside it was the slimmest blaster he had ever seen.

Was it even strong enough to handle the recoil that often accompanied such smaller firearms? Another glance at Mara left him in no doubt. It was.

Then there was the knife in her boot, and its larger companion at her waist, and beside that, another blaster.

He had known the Emperor's Hand wouldn't be a woman who couldn't defend herself, but somehow after last night he had been expecting something more sinister. The…practicality of the woman before him was humanizing. He could respect it.

Respect wasn't an emotion he wanted to feel just at that moment.

He cleared his throat, though no doubt she'd heard him come in. She waved a hand airily, absorbed in something on the datapad she was holding. He wondered if it was something he ought to be interested in as well.

Finally, with a deep breath, she shut it off and turned to him, and he was startled, for, free of the adornments of the previous evening and the fog of the morning, her eyes were an even brighter green. He wondered if her eyes weren't her greatest weapon, and he wondered if she knew it.

"Have you eaten?" she asked.

He shook his head. "I spent the whole day in meetings."

"So I heard."

So she was smart enough not to trust him. He smiled at her to let her know he knew it, and from the way she smiled back, she got the message.

Breaking this woman was going to take walking very, very close to the line.

 _**RogueLegends**_

He hadn't hear the orders she gave the droid over the comm, at least, he had heard enough to know they were actually talking about dinner. His attention had been back on the datapad, while a backseat corner of his awareness mulled over the fact that he really had no idea who he was dealing with.

That was the point, wasn't it?

Rebel Intelligence didn't have enough on the Emperor's Hand to even confirm if they were an organization or an individual. In fact, what they did know added up to little more than the ghosts of rumors. Nonetheless, Draven and Mon Mothma were convinced the Hand existed, and the one report – the _only_ one – that seemed to point a finger at anything in particular was pointed at Jade.

Cassian was starting to believe the ghosts. Whatever the woman was, he was only dealing with what she chose to show him.

Just now, she was showing him the city, or one of her favorite views of it. They were standing on a relatively quiet dent in the roof of the Imperial Palace, and all the lights of the planet-sized city swelled out before them like an ocean of urbanity. Cassian had always preferred more open places himself, if he got to chose and wasn't hiding, which he never did and never was, but he had to admit there was a certain beauty to it, and even more so when he looked at his companion, the lights etching into the lines of her face, her soft smile highlighted by them.

He wondered what it was like to be so certain of your place in the universe.

Kay-Too brought them dinner, not without a little huffiness. Cassian found the droid's presence interesting, even though he was gone almost as soon as he had come. He was not a protocol droid, and he was not the sort of machine one usually allocated to serving. Which could mean he was there to take data on Cassian.

"I don't need a droid for every occasion," Mara said, interrupting his thoughts. He looked as her in surprise, but she didn't bother to address it. "Kay-Too is very useful in situations more suited to his traditional programming, so I keep him around for the rest as well. He grumbles, but I think he'd take offense if I got a second droid. Very delicate sense of pride, that one."

Like yourself? Cassian thought, but didn't say it aloud, as he was currently guilty of a professional sense of shame himself.

"Where are you from?" Mara asked.

He smiled. "Alderaan."

"Don't waste my time. Before that."

He once again decided on an honest answer. "Before that I try to forget. And you?"

She looked out over the city again. "Before Coruscant…I _have_ forgotten. I was very young when I came here."

"Parents?"

When she turned to meet his gaze, her shields were down, and at last he had a picture of the true steel underneath. It was a warning, and he felt it like stone against his chest.

"The Empire is my parents," the woman who was not a dancer, but a weapon, said.

He believed her.


	4. All the King's Horses

Chapter 3: All the King's Horses

 _Mara._

She rolled over and lay back, staring into the darkness. There was no point in crying out, no point in sobbing. No one would hear her, and doing so would only reveal a weakness she had no desire to put on display. She wondered if _he_ knew, if he had any idea about the unease living deep in the caverns of her mind, sleeping until she was no longer awake to fight it.

A stirring beside her, and she realized there was someone to hear, and that was a rare thing. Once…once there had been someone, but he had become a _distraction_ and been dispatched to some distant outpost on a world no one cared to know the name of. Since then she had tried to limit her distractions to one or two night affairs. But Cass was different. As charming as he was skilled, he was also direct, and that was a welcome relief in the Imperial Court. She wasn't quite ready to be disinterested in him yet. She hoped he hadn't drawn too much attention, knew he probably had.

Did it matter? He wouldn't be on Coruscant forever.

 _Mara._

It wasn't so much a command as a constant reminder of his presence, a little pressure inside her mind. It had been more frequent lately, even though she wasn't on a mission. She wondered if this was due to Cass and shifted in discomfort.

He rolled over to face her, but didn't open his eyes. "What is it?" he mumbled.

"Nightmare," she answered.

He slid nearer, moving her on her side and facing away from him. One arm moved gently to slide under her head, cushioning it against his shoulder. His other hand twined his fingers with hers, resting up under her breasts and drawing her back against his chest until they were snug. She felt his face burrow into the back of her neck, and then he was still.

She fell asleep moments later, and neither dreamed, nor spoke to the ghosts in her head.

 _**RogueLegends**_

Cassian was in another meeting with Bail Organa and other members of the Alderaanian delegation. He was contemplating how politics could be both cutthroat and boring when Mara appeared, followed by the droid.

The anterooms in which council members met with their retinue were bugged. Cassian had no illusions about that. He doubted Organa did either. Still, it felt like an imposition, a breach of trust and privacy, to have an Imperial simply walk in, without announcement, accompanied by a droid programmed for, among other things, close quarter combat.

Cassian's spine stiffened, and he kept one eye on the droid.

Mara thrust a datapad at Organa's chest. "I was asked to bring this to your attention."

Recovering from whatever shock he felt at her intrusion quickly, Organa frowned over the screen. After a moment's perusal, he sat back and met Mara's gaze evenly.

"We're aware of it. It's an internal problem."

"It's not an internal problem anymore. Read on."

With a swift glance at Cassian, of all people, the senator complied. The exchange didn't go unnoticed by Mara, who flicked her attention to her lover for just a moment. He met it honestly _: I have no idea what's going on._

Finally, Organa sat back, this time appearing slightly defeated. Cassia wondered how he'd survived this long in politics, then wondered if it was acts like this that were exactly how.

"I'd like to amend my earlier statement. We were _hoping_ to resolve it internally."

"Rebels, Senator? Operating out of _your_ system?"

Organa scoffed. "Rebels? Hardly. We haven't found any evidence that these… _pirates_ have any ties to the Rebellion. They're anarchists, certainly."

"They're terrorists."

Organa's false resignation was hardening rapidly into steel. "They're unorganized. They don't even match the likes of the Hutts for cohesiveness."

"They're lucrative enough to have spread beyond the Alderaanian system and dogged enough to destroy an Imperial base and the refugee camp it was protecting," Kay-Too put in.

Alarm bells were going off in Cassian's head.

"Admittedly, the problem has become bigger than we realized."

"I think it's becoming even bigger than _we_ realized, Senator," Mara said. "How many more innocent lives will be lost before you pacifists take action? That's what you're always going on about, isn't it? Innocents? No-" She held up a hand. "–I'm not here to argue politics or failures. I'm here to tell you I've been authorized to take a little excursion into your little system. An excursion that will end in whatever action is necessary."

There was a long silence.

"Very well," Organa said at the end of it. "But I ask for one concession."

Mara waited.

"Take Cass, my assistant, with you. Alderaan should have a hand in whatever comes next. It is, as you say, our responsibility."

Mara smiled sardonically, but nodded assent.


	5. Big Sky

Chapter 4: Big Sky

"Do you want to know the odds of two Imperial agents stopping an anarchist smuggling ring?" Kay-Too was saying as Cassian climbed aboard their battered shuttle. It was a tight fit, even for three, and he might have found it cozy if Kay-Too hadn't been there. He wondered, briefly, if the droid's presence wouldn't suffocate both of them.

"Make sure you factor all your variables in there, Kay-Too," Mara replied as she adjusted the straps on the netting that held her luggage. "Leave something out, and you might be wrong for once. Or again. I'm not listening anyway, so you'll forgive me if I'm not keeping track."

If droids could glare, Kay-Too would have given her a masterful evil eye. Cassian nodded to Mara as he moved to stow his own belongings, glanced at Kay-Too as he brushed by him.

Despite the unpleasant third wheel, he felt the stifling cabin air and the old, plain clothes he wore like a fresh wind, like freedom. He was now on a triple mission with two agents of the Empire for company, and no back-up, but he felt more at home than he had since coming to Coruscant. It was almost enough to make him smile.

"That one's still probably a spy." Kay-Too hadn't given up yet.

Mara sighed. "No doubt. In fact, at the very least, Organa wants some control over the situation. Not surprising, nor unreasonable under the circumstances." She raised her eyebrows at Cassian. "Am I right?"

He nodded. "The senator has a great deal invested in this, as you well know."

"You see?" Mara turned, facing her droid directly as she would a smart child. "As for your other suspicions, when you have something concrete to support them, feel free to bring it up again. And don't worry, if that day comes, I _will_ shoot him. Now, start the pre-flight. I want to get out of here."

She moved to the back of the ship as Kay-Too huffed – a shocking feet from a construction of angles and metal – his way to the cockpit.

"What does he suspect?" Cassian asked, having the answer, as he handed her a canteen to stow with their other survival supplies.

Mara shrugged. "That you're a rebel spy. That Bail Organa is working with the pirates. That this is all a trap. That we have enemies everywhere."

"Hard to argue with that last," Cassian said.

She looked at him. "I'm used to working alone."

"Trust," he said, placing his hand over hers. "That's where we start." He didn't add, _I'm used to working alone too._

She squeezed his hand back. "Well, if we get sick of each other, Kay-Too will provide good company."

He laughed. Then, as she bent to shove a crate against the bulkhead, "Can I ask you something?"

"Ask away."

"Why would someone set a trap for one of the Emperor's dancers?"

She froze, straightened, met his gaze evenly. "Let's get one thing straight from here on out, okay?"

He nodded.

"I don't take you for a fool, and you understand that some things are _my_ business."

There was a long tense moment, during which Cassian had the absurd thought, _This is our first fight_ , but a moment later his brain detached from the role he was playing long enough to understand the position they were actually in, and he took a step towards her, raising a hand to her face.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I don't mean to pry." He gave her a half smile he hoped was roguish and charming. "I find you intriguing. Can you blame me for wanting to know more?"

She slapped his hand away, violently, her eyes hard. "Don't try that on me. I like you because you don't speak falsely. Ever. Until now. Do it again, and I'll be forced to consider Kay-Too may be right about you."

"Once would be enough, I'd think," a synthesized voice called down from the cockpit.

They ignored him. Cassian was trying to bring to mind his initial assessment of this woman, to backtrack into tactics he already knew would work.

Towing the line.

He didn't apologize. "Very well. May I make an honest suggestion then?"

Mara nodded.

"We shouldn't be headed for Alderaan. We should be headed for Tatooine."

She blinked at him. "Why in the name of all that is Sith would we go _there_?"

He headed for the cockpit , Mara in tow, and settled next to Kay-Too. "Mos Eisley Spaceport is a sort of bottleneck for the criminal underground," he explained as he strapped in. "Sooner or later all the scum in the galaxy passes through there. Whatever's happening on Aldreraan likely started there. Or someone who knows about it did."

Mara settled herself in the seat behind her droid, her eyes thoughtful. "And how would a secretary know this?"

He looked back at her over his shoulder. "Some things are _my_ business."

"If that isn't an admission of guilt, I don't know what it," Kay-Too said helpfully.

 _**RogueLegends**_

Mos Eisley Spaceport was all that was promised. Mara blinked at the variety of life around her, wondering how it managed to be more diverse than Coruscant, the supposed hub of the galaxy. Beside her, Cass walked with a mixture of confidence and wariness that, while further evidence in support of all the questions she wasn't asking, only made her like him more.

She contemplated this as she kept up her own survey of their surroundings. She had known from the start that Cass was not just an administrator. He clearly performed other work for the Organas, or Bail wouldn't have sent him with her. Perhaps this was the sort of thing Cass did all the time. Alderaanian Intelligence, perhaps? But then why had he been at the party? For _her_?

She dismissed this as soon as she thought of it. She was too closely guarded a secret. Her very existence was the stuff of shadow and myth. For her to show up at an operation likely meant the end of the line for all parties involved. She wasn't responsible for whatever justice followed, of course. She was merely the clean-up crew. But she could see it in the officers' eyes, and if she was standing in the room ready to do their jobs for them, they had utterly and unforgivably failed.

Even Bail Organa, with all his resources, wouldn't have enough on her to pick her out of a crowd.

What then? Another mission? Or perhaps Organa felt he needed the additional protection; things in the Senate were only growing tenser. Could Cass be his backup? But then, why send him away?

The man was a mystery. She was following a mystery through the dustiest town in the galaxy towards Force knew what sort of trouble, and she found she was enjoying herself.

He could keep his secrets for now. She might figure them out later, but she could live with their respectful understanding in the meantime.

They made their way – without stopping for directions, Mara noted – to a dim and smoke-filled cantina. Mara thought with a certain wryness that the air didn't feel all that different from a Coruscantian ball. Cass seemed to know his way through it though it just fine. In fact, if she'd had to pick a word for the set of his shoulders as they wove through the crowd in front of her, it would have been _relaxed_.

They bypassed the crowded bar and made for a small corner booth in the back. One of the occupants, a stocky man with a sharp eye containing a glint that warned you not to underestimate him, raised his eyebrows at them as they approached. Cass slowed his pace, just a little, and his elbow quirked just enough to put his hand closer to his blaster.

The man's eyes missed nothing. They took her in, assessed, and filed her away for later. Cass they already knew, but something about him had surprised them, and they weren't quite prepared to say what. The man nodded to his companion, an alien species unfamiliar to Mara, and they took the hint and got up to melt into the crowd. Cass took the vacated spot, and Mara slid in next to him.

"Well, this is a surprise," the man said.

"Jonas Crone, Mara Jade," Cass said by way of introduction.

"And to what do we owe the pleasure?"

The corner of Cass' mouth turned up. "Nothing like that, Jonas. We're just looking for information."

"You're _always_ looking for information, Cassian, though this time I think you've outdone yourself."

Cass, or Cassian, winced, and Mara thought, _Spy then, or someone who wants to leave his past behind him. Reformed spy?_ She nearly laughed aloud at the thought. _Intelligence of some kind, definitely_.

"Whatever you're thinking, that's still not it," Cassian said, and for a moment Mara though he was speaking to her. "I need to know about a gang of pirates operating out of the Alderaanian system."

Jonas' eyes darkened. "Anarchists. Even you don't want to waste your time digging around that firepit, Cassian."

"We _know_ they're anarchists," Mara said tightly. "But we don't know much more than that. They seem to be making a mess of things, and I don't just mean the raids. There's been-"

"I know what there's been," Jonas said evenly. "The piracy is just how they get their funding. These guys…They don't have a name, they don't have a leader – at least, they don't call him that, but they rally around him if they rally around anything at all. They don't have a _plan_ , as far as I can tell, unless it's to spread whatever chaos they can."

"Are they politically motivated?" Cassian asked.

"Who isn't these days?" said Jonas. "But it's worse than that. It's less politics and more blind anger. From what I hear, as far as these guys are concerned, the Rebellion…even the Separatists and the New Republic, all governments have kept them down. So they want them all gone. The senators, the systems, everything. It's them against the galaxy, and if they have to destroy it to get out from under ruling boots, they'll do it gladly."

"They're terrorists," Mara surmised.

Jonas' eyes on her were like daggers. _This would be a very dangerous man in a fight_ , Mara thought. His tone, however, was to the point. "You clearly don't understand anarchy, dear. It knows no honor code. It knows no cause and no master. There's nothing for it to cling to but blind rage."

"As opposed to what? Smuggling?"

Jonas leaned back with a grin. "I sit on a bedrock of personal profit, love. She's been a kinder and more reliable god than any shaman or politician has ever preached of. And don't think she doesn't have her standards of honor."

Mara snorted. The man could use a few lessons in the bigger picture, but that wasn't her mission. It never was. She had her rallying point. Others must choose theirs.

What was Cassian's?

 _Mara._

It came as a dull throb, and Mara raised a hand to her temple.

"Mara, are you alright?" Cassian's hand was on her arm, and his eyes were filled with a concern that she was suddenly certain was the only genuine thing in the room.

"Headache," she said softly. "Probably that damn song the band keeps playing. If you _gentlemen_ will excuse me, I'll go and get some fresh air."

He released her, and she nearly stumbled out. It wasn't quite a summons, not yet, but it was a warning. She wondered for the hundredth time how many of her emotions were laid bare through this bond, this tether to the source of all that was stable and reliable in her world.

One thing was clear, he wasn't happy about Cassian.

 _**RogueLegends**_

Cassian watched Mara go, concern worrying at him. For a moment, it had seemed her attention had been called away, as if she were listening to something only she could hear. He wondered again what he'd gotten himself in the middle of. When he turned back to the table, Jonas was watching him ruefully, and he found this even more disconcertingly than Mara's abrupt exit.

"What?" he demanded.

Jonas removed one finger from his glass to cock towards the door. "Do you know who she is?"

Cassian nodded.

Jonas was not convinced. "Do you know _what_ she is?"

Sometimes, he was finding, honesty did the trick just as well. "That's what I'm here to find out. Do _you_ know?"

Jonas shook his head. "Shadows and rumors." He grinned. "Your specialty. But none of the rumors are pleasant. Watch your back, Andor."

Cassian nodded. Why did everyone feel the need to remind him to do that?


	6. Future Guardian

Chapter 5: Future Guardian

Jonas' information wasn't thorough, but it was solid. Mara and Cassian spent a night on Tatooine, then headed for Babyli, a moon in a more or less desolate system not too far from Alderaan. Cassia was unsurprised to learn that was where the pirates were operating out of. He was, in fact, slightly disappointed to find them in such an obvious location.

And yet not so obvious. Babyli was a hub, a trading post, a refuge, an off the charts mishmash of whatever life the galaxy happened to throw into its clutches.

Anything could hide there.

Including a Rebel spy and a mysterious woman known vaguely as the Emperor's Hand. Cassian led them expertly through the crowded streets, thinking that whatever might have lived on the underside of a world like Coruscant had ended up here.

Then again, the underside of Coruscant held a far more subtle darkness.

They passed crying babies, scampering children. Florists handling bouquets that might have been alive once, stems now preserved in a gel that allowed the semblance of life for a week or more. Weavers offering the pick of styles across the galaxy, no doubt three years behind the current trends. Scavengers and their go-betweens haggling over the bottom line. Activists shouting in front of their holos, as if they could be heard over the din. Fortune tellers. Pilgrims. Food of unimaginable variety and questionable digestibility.

It was hot, and it was chaotic. And as far as Cassian was concerned, it was safe.

After a few inquiries, he found them lodging – staying at the ship would have been easiest, but might have attracted attention to the vessel and the reprogrammed Imperial droid on board. As he turned from making the arrangements, Cassian caught something unexpected in the wide eyes and hungry stare of the girl next to him.

Mara was _young_. Much younger than he'd thought, and younger than himself, certainly. Regarding her now, he caught the one detail he'd missed: that no woman of experience, who carried the title of "Emperor's Hand," could possibly fall for the charms of a man such as himself.

He wasn't that good.

Which meant that Mara had had little experience with _men_.

For the first time, he felt a rush of shame. He was corrupting something, something Imperial, but it was still his fault. It was still an innocence.

Then, in a sudden rush of anger at the Empire that would take a girl and set her to whatever horrific tasks an Imperial assassin of the highest rank was deployed for, he found and re-shouldered his purpose.

They were not so different, he and Mara, and he had a job to do.

She turned and smiled at him, artless and trusting, and he took her hand as he said, "Come on," and led her through the busy streets to their room.

 _**RogueLegends**_

There was something different this time, though Mara could not have said why. Cassian was not, in her brief experience of the man, a rough or hurried lover. If she'd had to chose a word for him, it would have been _calculated_ , an impression which should have unnerved her, but which worked out quite well in the bedroom.

This night was different. A little of the control slipped, a little of the mask faded, and Mara felt she was making contact with something that was usually sheltered, something with a shyness tinged with desperation. It was not an entirely _successful_ transaction, but for all that, Mara felt a certain satisfaction when they were through. He had panted and sweated, devoted his entire body to her in a way she didn't recognize until the end, when his eyes as they looked at her were, of all things, troubled. She felt suddenly that all that effort had been spent in trying to give her something. She didn't know what it was, and she wondered if he did.

The thought left her cold.

Sensing this even as they drifted off, he pulled her to him, and until she heard her own name ring in her mind from across the galaxy, she could forget all the unanswered questions between them.

It was a summons.

 _**RogueLegends**_

They had separated, Mara slipping away and blending effortlessly into the crowd to "check in," whatever that meant. Cassian stood near a cluster of vendors with brightly shrouded stalls, too weary to really watch the crowd. It took the full on human contact of touch on his arm to rouse him.

The tiny woman, humanoid, withered and brittle, looked up at him with eyes like iron. "This, I do for free," she said, tugging his sleeve as she turned. With a frown and a curiosity he had no will to fight, Cassian obeyed.

He took in the stall's contents: cards, crystals, a variety of incense, most of which mixed in the thickened air, but the woman shook her head.

"Misdirection. Baubles. The necessary accessories of dealing with customers who only know what they can see. With you, I need no such distractions, eh?"

Cassian could only blink at her.

"Hmph. To the point then. Do you know the fire with which you're playing?"

His hand tightened around the strap of his knapsack. "My mission…"

She shook her head. "I'm not talking about the mission. I'm talking about the girl."

He went cold. The mission…she could have guessed. No doubt he looked like a man with a purpose to any keen observer. But Mara…

She was nodding now, even an inexpert reader of humans could have told they'd hit the mark. "Flame caged in darkness and duty, she is, but her destiny is even greater than yours."

Cassian's lips twitched wryly. "I've never put much stock in destiny."

"Ironic, that, as it's put so much stock in you." The woman approached him, wrapping her gnarled fingers around his callused ones. "Do not worry for your soul, Cassian Andor. When the true battle comes, you will do what is right."

Ignoring the flash of discomfort and alarm her use of his full, correct name ignited, Cassian pulled away. "Unless you have something more concrete to tell me, I'll take my leave now."

"How's this for concrete? She will outlive you."

 _**RogueLegends**_

The prophecy wasn't just substantive, it was comforting. Cassian moved through the streets with a new lightness to his step. Whatever horrors awaited them, he would not have to take Mara's life. And even if he had to try, he would not be successful.

 _**RogueLegends**_

The summons was not an official one. Mara had means other than the Force of contacting her master, and by those means she learned that he mostly wanted a report of their progress. "Slow," she told him honestly, and was both relieved and alarmed when he didn't push it further. He called her "my child," and she understood that, somehow, her relationship with the mysterious Cassian had gotten back to him.

Between that and the incongruent semi-facts that had emerged about Cassian over the last few days, she was starting to get a sick and knotted feeling in the pit of her stomach. Consequently, she was not in a very good mood when she rejoined him and answered his nearly cheerful "hello" with a grunt. He frowned, but didn't press it, and she found another reason to like this person she shouldn't trust and the Emperor didn't approve of. The knot got bigger.

Mara had the sense that, whatever happened in between, this wouldn't end well.


	7. Fall of the Fountain World

Chapter 6: Fall of the Fountain World

Their contact had been offworld when they arrived on Babyli, but, if Jonas' intel was correct, would be in about midnight local time, and shortly thereafter would stop in for a drink at his favorite tapcafe. Cassian and Mara would be there waiting, and he was expecting them.

Jonas had been helpful enough to worry Cassian.

 _**RogueLegends**_

It was almost like clockwork. The hour struck midnight, Cassian and Mara made their way to the designated bar, and about half an hour later their contact showed.

It was impossible to identify what species he was, but it would have been more impossible still _not_ to identify _him_. Jonas' description – green, with gray pads on his hands, tiny eyes in three deep folds, face with a permanent frown, and for all this, a shock of unruly orange hair on his crown - while confusing when given, made perfect sense once they actually saw him.

He might have mentioned the voice though, Cassian thought wryly, as the high octave demanded a local ale. Somewhere, Jonas was laughing.

"Jonas sent us," Cassian said as they approached, having been warned not to beat around the bush. The creature surveyed them, expression unreadable, sunken as it was in the folds of his face, and hummed something that might have been an acknowledgment.

The ale appeared, and the creature got up and gestured to a back table. Once they were seated, he launched into his tale in operatic tones, despite the clear attempt to lower his voice.

"Alderaan was never the target," he said, "but its senator likely is. The men you're after are little better than the Partisans. They have no use for political rhetoric. They believe it's the politicians themselves who are poisoning the galaxy, and if we could do away with their constant stalling – the pirate word for diplomacy – we could overthrow the Emperor once and for all."

It was an argument Cassian had heard before, usually from Rebellion infantry, tired of the constant _debate_ of the people at the top and desperate to be on their feet and _doing_ something. It was a sentiment he shared on occasion, but he understood there were enough moving parts to render his particular restlessness inert. He did his job. The rest was just philosophy.

"What exactly are we talking about here?" he asked.

The creature leaned it, managing to lower his voice in an imitation of a whisper. "Assassination."

"Of Bail Organa?" Mara asked with mild interest.

"Of all the senators suspected of being in the Rebellion."

Cassian hoped his sudden stillness would be put down to concern for his employer, but there was little chance to worry about what Mara was thinking.

"Word is, they have access to nanoids," their contact went on. "Tiny droids. So small the eye could never see them. They can be slipped in a drink, in food, into an air tank. You'd never know. They make their way through your bloodstream and position themselves. On command, they stop your heart."

Mara remained skeptical. "That's an awfully sophisticated piece of technology. From what we've heard, the rebels we're dealing with are little more than anarchists. How would they gain access to something like that?"

The creature made a honking noise that might have been a snort. "You really think they're anarchists? They're just a collection of reactive types who believe they're thinking for themselves, but don't have enough of a brain between them to realize someone else is pulling the strings."

"Who?" Cassian demanded.

"Don't know for sure, but if you want my opinion, my money's on the Moffs."

Mara hissed.

"There's more. The plan doesn't end with killing the senators. I have no idea what their next move is, but I'd suggest looking into it before doing anything brave."

"How would we do that?" Mara asked.

The creature did something like incline his head towards Cassian. "Ask him. He's the expert."

Cassian's mind was too focused on the next source of intel to catch Mara's look at first. When he did, he merely replied, "What? You didn't think the only thing I did for Senator Organa was push paperwork, did you?"

She snorted.

 _**RogueLegends**_

She waited until they were back in their lodgings to ask him about the frown on his face. The man could hide a lot of things, but not when he was this deep in thought.

"I'm trying to work out how best to proceed," he told her. "Do I take this information back to Organa? Do I dig deeper?"

"Do _we_ dig deeper," she corrected him, taking his jacket from his hands and setting it aside. "This was my mission before we got all convoluted following your leads. Time we got back on track."

He regarded her gravely. "I suppose the Moffs really are more your territory anyway." He sat down on the bed. "What do you suggest?"

She shook her head. "If the Moffs are involved…I was wondering why I was given this mission in the first place, but I wonder…" She didn't continue aloud, but what she wondered was if the Emperor had had some idea, had sent her to be certain. It was a better way to confirm the guilt of his own governors than an official investigation. Perhaps he knew Cassian's value as a…what? source of intelligence? and that was why he'd allowed the relationship to continue. Well, if they were both going to be spies, they might as well do it together. "These anarchists…I don't suppose they take recruits?"

Cassian smiled at her, standing. "You're thinking we need a more direct source of information?"

She nodded. "It'll save time."

"Not necessarily. We'll need to build trust to be let in on anything important. That could take months." He was packing their bags now. A quick process, as neither had really unpacked.

"So we figure out who _does_ know something, then grab them and ask them."

"Ask them?"

"Convincingly."

"And if the Moffs really are behind this?"

She met his wary eyes without the slightest waver. "I'll deal with them."


	8. The Wolf King

Chapter 7: The Wolf King

The Rebel base was located inside the far end of a crater, a formation that may have been caused by a meteor impact thousands of years earlier, or may have been the result of a more recent terrestrial trauma. Mara wondered who, if anyone, had lived there previously.

It was as rickshaw a camp as she'd ever been in. The accommodations were barely that. Tents and lean-tos, in such a condition that the Imperial Army would have thrown them in the rubbish heap. The bare minimum of shelter resting on the bare minimum needed to sustain life. The men and women there were all hallowed cheeks and sunken eyes with anger burning in their depths. Desperation was at every turn, resting on every rock.

Why? Mara wondered to herself as they passed through. What about the Empire was so horrible that people _chose_ this over its protective rule? As far as she knew, no one was starving. What could possibly drive people to such blind hate? Was it merely that? Blindness? Were they so enraged at the loss of what _was_ to that they were unable to see what had now been provided to them? Surely the presence of a few troops was nothing compared to having real flesh on their bones.

It was a question she'd have posed, perhaps, to her Superior, if she had thought he would welcome that level of introspection.

It was half tent, half cave that they finally approached, led there by instinct and the subtle suggestions of hands on blasters if they made a wrong turn. The fabric dripping from the rocks to form additional walls had more color in it than anything they'd passed so far. Still, it was drab for red. Mara self-consciously tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, thankful she'd worn a hood.

"Welcome, friends."

A man stood in the center of the tent. He was stocky, but tall, with hair cropped short and nearly indistinguishable from his weathered and filthy face. A crude patch covered one eye, and though he grinned, it was the hard smile of a man with confidence, not stupidity.

"I'd give you our names," Cassian opened, "but I'm not sure we're in the right place."

The visible eyebrow raised. There was no telling what its counterpart was doing. "And what makes you say that?"

"The lack of security."

The man, and several of his companions, laughed boldly. "Come. Have a seat." He indicated a couple of crates scattered around his meager fire. "We're all friends here." A jug appeared from somewhere, and a pair of cups made of the durable material recreational adventurers favored. "Ale," the man said. "Not the best, but you'll feel it in your gut, and it's not poison."

Mara didn't close her eyes as she tried to read the man, but she felt him strongly nonetheless. He wasn't trying to hide anything. Yet. He wanted to know why they were there as much as they wanted to know why he was. Sometimes the best way to get information was to ask for it. Or, at least, the best place to start.

She took a sip from her cup. Beside her, Cassian followed suit. It was bitter and terrible as promised.

"If you didn't see our security on your way in, they're doing their jobs well," the man said. "We always permit visitors. Men should be free to go where they wish. Whether they can leave again may be a matter for negotiation."

"Men don't have that natural freedom as well then?" Mara asked.

The man genuinely smiled at her, no doubt enjoying the chance to exercise his rhetoric. She planned to let him. He probably didn't get much chance out here. She suspected his companions had heard it all before. So much for not having a leader. "Aye, he does. But once he's on our turf, we have the right to stop him. I'll suffer no danger to our cause."

"Then you are the man we're looking for," Cassian said, jumping ahead. Mara hid a smirk behind her cup. Clearly his work with Organa hadn't made _him_ very patient with political rhetoric.

The man's attention shifted to Cassian and the blunt assertion. "I suppose I am. But then, we all are, by definition. All one man with a common purpose. United, as it were, in a bond closer than marriage. The bond of just cause. What brings you to us?"

Cassian studied his ale for a moment. When he looked up, his eyes appeared open and honest. "The chance to make a difference. The chance to rid our galaxy of its chains once and for all."

Mara could almost believe him.

"And what would you do to see those chains fall?"

"Whatever is necessary."

The man rose, fetched the jug, and poured himself a cup. "There are some who favor a more diplomatic approach to this problem."

"And how many lives would be lost in the meantime? Their way is too slow. Besides." Cassian paused, bit his lip. "I have never seen chains _talked_ off a man."

Their host sat back down, studying Cassian's earnest face. "I agree. Though I should point out there is loss of life, either way."

Cassian's eyes, intent on their interviewer, had none of the softness Mara had grown used to. "Better theirs than ours."

 _**RogueLegends**_

It wasn't as simple as all that. Even Cassian, convincing as he was, couldn't win over an anarchist leader with a few calculated sentences.

"You'll have to prove your commitment," the man, Anders, had said as he led them to the anarchist's small shipyard, tucked into one of the crater's many caves and no doubt under a mineral deposit that made it undetectable from space. "A test, which to a man of your intelligence should come as no surprise." He looked pointedly at Cassian as he said this, and Cassian felt the ground shifting beneath him. "Rian here has a mission. He's got Boadacks and Shimmer here with him already, but could use the extra crew."

On one side of the ramp they were approaching stood a man with a smooth face and horribly scared hands. Another man and a woman stood on the other side. Cassian made a mental note that so far the only lifeforms they'd seen were humanoid.

Anders stopped at the end of the ramp. "The deal is simple: complete the mission, and you'll have a place with us."

"And if we don't?" Mara asked.

Anders glanced at his men. His eyes slid down to the rifles they held, skipped to the blasters at their waists. No doubt more items of similar lethality were hidden in their boots and other places.

He met Mara's gaze evenly. "They have their orders. All's fair in love and war, darling."

 **A/N:** Additional Disclaimer: I don't own the chapter titles either. Points to anyone who knows where I got them.


	9. Spellcaster

Chapter 8: Spellcaster

The mission was to blow up a senatorial cruiser.

Mara had glared at the man Rian as he explained their objective, trying not to look like she was gaping at him. Cassian was asking technical questions about what ordinances were available to them (a hodgepodge, but an impressive one) and what defenses the target ship had (less impressive, but still durable). While his outer mind was focused on the answers and trying to look like he was more interested in them than the feel of Mara's hip under his hand (under the pretense of steadying them both. The ship did not have enough seating, and barely enough room for them to all stand, grasping the straps that hung from the hull), his inner mind was trying to process exactly what the long term plan was.

Chaos, clearly. An upset of the system they despised. A government could not be run without its governors. But every governor had their understudy, someone to step in if an assassination was successful. To really take down the government, the anarchists would have to…

Hit them on all levels at once.

The ship they were targeting now did not carry any leaders, but the higher-ranking staff of the senator from its sector. The senator himself, like Bail and so many others, was still on Coruscant, waiting out the end of this session. It could be weeks before it was over, but if the anarchists had their way…

Why the poison then? Why not wait until the session was over and the senators aboard their ships and knock everyone out at once?

The plan, so simple with its only two points, was nonetheless confusing. It was neither as dramatic nor as organized as he would have thought of a man such as Anders, who had a voice that would not rest until it was heard.

Cassian looked at Mara. Her eyes were angry, but calculating. She was drawing some of the same conclusions he was.

In an unexpected and dangerous wave of fondness, he reached to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.

 _**RogueLegends**_

Mara was having a hard time believing they were going to blow the ship. It was too…random, too simple for the man she assessed Anders to be. The destruction of one ship, with nothing to tie it to the Rebels, that was not the act of propaganda necessary to attain his goals.

So if they weren't going to blow the ship, what were they _doing_ there?

One glance at Cassian told her his priorities. He was going to find a way to warn the passengers. The rest could be sorted out later. But it wasn't that simple for her. The problem kept nagging at her.

 _Mara._

She released her hold on the ship, dropping a hand to the back of her neck and clamping down to keep her teeth from chattering. The Emperor knew where she was, reminded her of his authority with a ringing in her skull.

"You alright?" By contrast, Cassian's voice was soft, soothing in its matter-of-factness. His eyes, though distracted, still took the time to gauge her condition.

Mara nodded, and he raised his eyebrows. She thought about claiming a headache, but they had an agreement. If he was going to start asking questions about the voice in her head, then she was going to ask for his full name. Neither of them was curious enough to make that leap. Not yet.

Besides, she told herself, when this is over, he's going back to Alderaan, and you don't need him taking your secrets with him.

They made their way onto the ship with more ease that she expected. For the their seeming disorganization, the Rebels had managed to get hold of a centuries old docking clamp, a fragment of some forgotten war. Mara found this as disturbing as anything else, but just then it allowed them to attach to the underbelly of the cruiser without detection. And they'd thought to bring pressure cutters. It was a simple matter after that.

They emerged in the maintenance room. Rian of course had laid out the plan for them already. Cassian and Boadacks would take the bow, Mara and Shimmer the stern. Cassian squeezed Mara's hand as they parted, shot Shimmer a look promising all the details of what she'd endure if something happened to his companion. Mara had been surrounded by guards and Force masters her entire life. Never had she felt so safe as when she watched him walk away.

 _**RogueLegends**_

The trick was to get rid of Boadacks. There was the obvious answer, of course, but Cassian didn't want to leave evidence behind if he didn't have to, and he needed to find someone he could trust before he did anything else.

The opportunity came when they entered the left wing of the living quarters. Boadacks directed him around a bend, explained where to plant the charge. Cassian was familiar enough with the class of cruiser that he didn't need to be told, but he nodded and feigned small confusion, looking both ways before turning down a left hand corridor.

He stalked right up to the young man studying the ship's readout on a wall display. He was frowning at it, and Cassian had the distinct impression he wasn't lost so much as studying the ship's schematics.

It helped a little that he knew him.

"Wedge."

The young man jumped back half a step and turned, eyes wide, taking in Cassian's grisly state and civilian garb. "Cap-"

"Quiet."

Like a good soldier, Wedge Antilles obeyed. Cassian didn't know him well, was more familiar with his father, a fellow captain in the Rebel forces, and one of Organa's close confidants. But he knew the son was smart, resourceful, and could be trusted even with so delicate a mission as Cassian was about to hand him.

"Listen to me very carefully. I need you to get a message to Senator Organa."

 _**RogueLegends**_

Shimmer led Mara deep into the bowels of the ship. There were catwalks set under the massive engines. A hot and sticky place, the air thick around them. Light filtered through the grating. It was obvious why they had been chosen for this task. Shimmer was small, and Mara had an extraordinary grace.

She used every but of it now as she maneuvered into position. At the same time, she stretched out her senses, trying to get a feel of the ship around her. On the deck above, a couple of engineers mulled about their business. This was the night shift, she realized. In fact, the whole ship was more or less quiet, down to a skeleton crew. Small minds, malleable, barely alert in their drowsy half-attentive state. Perhaps if she reached out with just enough pressure…

But no. There were two active minds on that ship. One, young, younger even than her, though she was often loathe to admit her real age, was making rapidly for the captain's quarters, confusion, fear, all the weight of sudden responsibility heavy on his mind. The other was Cassian, anxious, wary, and, she realized with a pang, decidedly less guarded than when around her.

It wasn't until Boadacks caught up with Cassian that she realized he was awake too.

Mara smacked her head on the grating above her, the bang loud in the nighttime stillness. She hissed softly, and wiggled until she could see Shimmer.

The woman had a blaster pointed at her.

Mara smiled, thinking, as she always did, that the woman had no idea what was coming. Shimmer was opening her mouth to deliver a sneering explanation, but never got it out. The blaster ripped from her hand and shot into Mara's ready one, but she didn't need it.

Shimmer's eyes widened further still, bulging, not quite understanding, not quite appreciating the depth of her mistake.

Mara didn't have the time or the inclination to explain it to her.

She slipped over the body with the ease of a cat, only one thought in her mind.

She had to save Cassian.

 _**RogueLegends**_

 _CASSIAN!_

The cry was in his mind, but it was powerful enough to stop him dead in his tracks. A warning, not a cry for help. A –

His blaster was in his hand and aimed at Boadacks almost before he could finish the thought. His escort already had a weapon trained on him, however, and though he appeared surprised at Cassian's readiness, he did not seem ruffled by it.

"Well, well, I think what we have here is a Corellian standoff. Why don't you just put that shooter down, and we'll end this without any fuss."

"You mean without the sort of fuss that might alert security?" Cassian replied mildly. "Seems to me the odds are no more in your favor than mine, and you still have my companion to contend with."

"Your _companion_ 's already dead."

It wasn't true, he knew. Still the words hit him like a blow to his bowels.

"Or not," Boadacks went on, grinning. "Pretty thing. I could think of a few reasons to keep her breathing, if she's still twitching."

Cassian's hand tightened on his blaster, but his voice came out smoothly. "I would not attempt it, if I were you. She's not someone you want to underestimate."

And he heard her, or felt her. At any rate, he knew she was there, barreling around the corner at top speed. Boadacks and Cassian turned at the same time as Mara skidded to a stop at the end of the corridor, eyes blazing.

Boadack's blaster was torn from his hand, seemingly by the air itself. He stared at his fingers in shock for only a moment before Mara shot him.

And everything compacted in Cassian's brain at once.

Jedi. Mara was a Jedi. Or whatever the…what was it they called it? _Force-sensitive_ servants of the Emperor called themselves. Vader, the Emperor…weren't they Dark Jedi?

The Emperor's Hand. _The Emperor's bloody_ _Hand_.

The woman he'd been stalking was a Dark Jedi.

That Dark Jedi was now grabbing his hand, tugging him along, her green eyes as honest as any he'd ever seen. Honest and grim; as young as she was, she knew shock when she saw it and knew to take charge.

For all his promises to himself, he'd never imagined…

He was seated, his back to the cold, hard hull of the ship. Mara was yelling to Rian, but her hands were on his shoulders, holding him up, pressing him back. Her eyes met his, and he felt like he was drowning, and at the same time, like he wasn't deep enough.

 _Mara._

She wrenched back, one hand clasped around her forehead, and he snapped back into action, but he was slow, it all still felt so slow.

"What is it?" he was asking.

"Nothing," she was lying,

And he understood there would always be secrets between them, and not all of them his.

He was no believer, but right then he wanted to be. He wanted to believe the old witch who'd said Mara would outlive him.


	10. Ironheart

Chapter 9: Ironheart

Rian got them into hyperspace before coming back to find out exactly which part of the plan had gone to hell. Clearly, he hadn't been expecting the part where Cassian and Mara were the survivors.

"Shimmer and Boadacks, where are they?" he demanded in a low voice.

"They fell behind," Cassian answered in the same tone, not quite looking at him.

Rian sneered. "Not likely. You two were supposed to be separated."

"We were," Mara said, circling him slowly. "We caught up, and ship's security found us all four together. We ran, and they fell behind."

He wasn't buying it, but he didn't need to. Mara had put a hundred and eighty degrees between herself and Cassian, and Rian's attention was fully on her. As it should be. By all appearances, Cassian was in shock, as well he might be after seeing two comrades killed or captured. Or after what had really happened. But Mara knew by now not to underestimate her companion. Rian was about to learn that lesson.

It was a three step process. Cassian's hand slid around the handle of a truncheon, one weapon amidst the arsenal they'd brought with them, all currently secured by the netting that lined the ship's hull. Then he was on his feet, and a second later Rian was on the deck.

Mara surveyed Cassian over the unconscious figure at her feet. "Looks like our cover's blown."

He didn't meet her gaze. "We don't have time for that anyway. We need to extract what information we can from him and get it back to Senator Organa, before people start dying. Help me tie him up."

They rolled Rian over and secured him with cuffs and a bit of the netting for good measure. They propped him against the hull. Mara stared at the man, wondering how long they'd have to wait for him to wake up. It wasn't that long of a trip back to Babyli.

Cassian was rifling through their supplies. "How are you going to get him to talk?" Mara asked him.

"However I have to," Cassian answered. He'd been retrieving smaller items and placing them on the deck, all in a neat row. They were all common, nondescript. Can-openers, fishing line. But Mara could guess their purpose, in Cassian's mind, was less than conventional. How did a senator's aid know such things? It was hard to imagine Organa _employed_ him for such activities.

"Cassian," she said, voice low.

He stopped. It was the first time she'd called him that, though she'd known the name for a while. His eyes, on her now, were larger than normal, but it wasn't shock. It was pain, such pain, and Mara flinched beneath it.

A heartbeat brought him to his feet and in front of her. His eyes were darkened now, though the pain was still there. Frown lines had formed around his mouth, indeed around all his features. Mara took a deep, shuddering breath, felt his chest rise with hers. His hand stroked her hair once, then slipped behind her neck and pulled her to him.

His mouth was hot, his tongue slick and fast and demanding, and she fought to give it everything it asked for. His hands were even more severe, shoving aside her gear, her jacket, and, eventually, enough of her clothing to get himself where he wanted to go, and then he was _there_ , and though neither spoke a word, the cargo hold filled with their sighs.

She wrapped herself around him, and it felt like more of herself was joined to himself than before. Each shudder apart was agony, each move together sweet completeness. Her skin blended with his. There was no exploration now, no tender tracing of fingers on more private flesh. They were aching and thrusting to be as close together as they possibly could be, and it was not enough.

They were as one as they could get, as was possible for their souls, when they finally came to each other, and though, when done, her body hummed its rhythm of satisfaction, her heart felt empty and forgotten.

"It's almost over," he breathed into her ear.

 _**RogueLegends**_

When Rian woke, Cassian had already inserted the line under his fingernail. He tugged, ever so slightly, up the finger, and Rian gasped.

"What? What are you…?" He glared at Cassian. "Rebel scum."

"Imperial scum," Mara corrected him. "Or Alderaanian scum, if you feel like being picky."

Rian stared at here, then laughed. Cassian tugged a little harder.

"Alright, alright, enough of that. What do you _want_?" Rian panted.

"I want to know how the poison is being distributed," Cassian said, each word clear. "I want to know why Anders is poisoning the senators and blowing up their cruiseships. I want every detail, and I want it now. I am not a patient man." Another tug.

Rian hissed through his teeth. His eyes glared defiance.

Setting his jaw and tightening his grip on his prisoner's hand. Cassian pulled once more, and the nail came off.

Rian's screams ripped through the ship. Mara felt his pain rattling in her bones. She shut her eyes as though in doing so she could shut out the sound, and the emotions behind it. Of course it was no good. Her teeth chattered with his breath, her hands clawed themselves with his spasms.

For all her grisly assignments, all her neatly dispatched executions, Mara had never had to torture a man before. She was grateful, just now, as their prisoner's agony rippled along Force-lines into her chest.

For all that, she mustered a sum of Imperial composure she held in reserve, and held her ground as Cassian twisted the line under the next nail.

Rian was snuffling. He didn't have the training for this. _Anders_ probably didn't have the training for this. You fought and you died. That was the anarchist path. Zealots moved on emotion, not strength. Would another nail do it? Or would his _conviction_ sustain him longer?

Or would his shattered beliefs break him more quickly than the pain?

"Why?" Mara asked, and Cassian stopped what he was doing as both men turned to look at her. She crossed the decking to crouch in front of Rian. "Why resist him? It'd all be over in a moment. Why do any of you _do_ this?"

Rian sneered up at her. "You must be living pretty high and mighty up there in your Imperial palaces. You must be someone important, someone with nothing to worry about, without a loss or a care. Otherwise you'd _know_ why. You'd know what the Empire does to men like men. _Real_ men." Another glare at Cassian, who didn't seem to feel the insult. He was watching Mara.

"Why not just join the Rebellion then?" she went on. "Surely you'd be more effective working together."

"The Rebellion." Rian spat. "Sycophants and hypocrites. Parading around in their silks and their medals saying, 'Wait, wait, there's a _diplomatic_ solution.' Well there isn't. They're just too fool to see it. And all the while more people die. More families are broken, more children are taken. More good men die. The Rebellion, see, they're so afraid of losing what they've already lost – their precious _Senate_ , their _Republic_ – they can't accept that it's gone; they can't do what needs to be done.

"So while they sit on their diplomatic asses clinging to the ashes of the dead dream that was the Republic, like the dying priests of a forgotten religion, the rest of us decided to stand up and _defend_ our own! We're tired of waiting from the sidelines, watching them attend parties while we attend funerals."

And Mara realized where she'd seen this before. She sat back on her heels. "You were Lord Morvat's aid." She turned to Cassian. "It's the aids, the assistants. They started this. The senators' aids. The senators are the target, not the Empire. The aids will distribute the poison."

"And die in their own tribute to the lost cause they believe they've been serving." She watched Cassian's brain working, watched him take it in, watched him realize that the hardest place to be might be where you could see all, but do nothing. "I have to get a message to Senator Organa," he said, and made for the cockpit.

Rian spat again. "Well, I suppose that's that then. Wasn't all for nothing though."

"Oh, no? How do you reckon?" Mara rose to her feet, feeling slightly stringy as all the blood rushed back to her legs.

"Must have caused something of a stir to get both the Empire and the Rebellion after us."

"Oh? And what did the Rebellion do to you?"

He was quiet long enough she turned back around. His face was lit with triumph. He grinned, and it turned her cold. This. Right here. This was the real set-up.

"Don't know then?" He licked his lips. "That's _Captain_ Cassian Andor. Rebel Intelligence."

Something in her _howled_ denial. Another part of her whispered, _you knew_. She grew rigid with the cold, the conflict. Rian was watching her, eyes gleaming with life in the knowledge he'd dealt her a blow.

She shot him.


	11. Last of the Light

Chapter 10: Last of the Light

"What happened?" Cassian demanded from the top of the ladder as Mara scrambled her way up to the cockpit.

"He got mouthy, so I shot him."

Cassian's gaze was stern, but Mara shoved past him. "We needed him alive," he hissed as she took the pilot's chair.

Mara found the controls she needed even as she retrieved the com that linked her with Kay-Too from her jacket pocket. "We need no such thing. He's told us all we need to know."

Cassian came up behind her to lean heavily on the back of her chair. "We could have bartered his life back at the anarchist's camp."

"I doubt his life was worth that much to them. Besides, we're not going back to the camp."

"We're-"

"Look." She spun around, finally facing him. "The only person we need right now is Kay-Too. If you'll give me a minute, I'll contact him and have him rendezvous with us on Alderaan. Then we can figure out how to sort this whole mess. Happy?"

He wasn't. His eyes had narrowed. "What happened back there."

She turned back to the controls. "Nothing. Like I said, he talked too much. We don't have the time, and I don't have the patience. If we'd kept him alive, he'd only have done everything he could to lead us off course." She looked up at him. "You wouldn't have gotten anything else out of him. Not anything useful. Now will you let me call Kay-Too? As previously stated, we don't have a lot of time."

Clearly not satisfied, Cassian backed away. "I'll see to the body."

When he had gone down the ladder, Mara rested her forehead on the consul and tried not to cry.

 _**RogueLegends**_

Alderaan itself was too busy a place to actually rendezvous. Kay-Too suggested a moon orbiting an uninhabitable outlying planet. There was nothing wrong with the moon itself, per se. It was just that it was barren, and why live there when you could live on Alderaan?

Mara practically sprang from the ship when they landed, Cassian frowning at her as she passed him, still attending to Rian's remains. He would bury him on the moon, she knew, but just then she only cared about finding her droid.

"Mistress Jade-" Kay-Too began as she entered her ship.

"Shut up," she said. "I need you to pull up anything you can on a Captain Cassian Andor. You'll most likely find it in anything we have on the Rebellion's shoddy intelligence network."

Droids couldn't look thoughtful, and there was nothing in her training that suggested they could be connected to the Force. In fact, the Emperor would have vehemently rejected the notion. But Mara couldn't help feeling her droid was studying her, and she felt the scrutiny like the touch of a friend.

He did was he was told however, and Mara didn't need to do more than skim the few details compiled on the man to have Rian's story confirmed. Kay-Too, to his credit, kept his mouth shut, and let her finish and sink into the pilot's chair, her pilot's chair, where she told him the rest. He listened through the anarchist's story and the bits they'd surmised themselves, and then he let the cool silence of the moon hang around them a moment before saying at last, "May I make a strategic point?"

Mara nodded.

"You have a four thousand three hundred and seventy-five percent better chance at stopping the anarchist plot with him than without."

Mara blinked. She'd known this. She'd felt it deep down. It was the reason Cassian wasn't dead already.

That and…

"I can't trust him," she said to herself as much as Kay-Too.

"While all available data would point to the probability that you cannot, in fact, trust _anybody_ you encounter in your line of work, in this matter exclusively, I believe you can trust Captain Andor," Kay-Too said authoritatively. "You have the same goal. Whatever his true allegiances, whatever his reasons for seeking you out in the first place, in this, he will not betray you. But I would suggest, when it's done, that you get as far away from him as possible."

Mara thought of the senators. She thought of their seconds. She thought of those still further down the line of succession. She thought of the aids lined up to betray them all, of the detonation that would be the dramatic background for the more precise and personal poisoning.

"Not before," she amended. "Now."


	12. Flameheart

Chapter 11: Flameheart

It was after what passed for dark on the moon they were hiding on when Cassian returned from disposing of the enemy casualty. Burial on that rock wasn't something he had the time or the tools to accomplish, so he'd hidden the body in a natural crevice and covered it in rocks, as good a deterrent as any if there were in fact any scavengers living in that wasteland. He'd done it before, but he was never happy leaving the dead. He rubbed a filthy sleeve over his sweating and equally filthy brow as he approached the ships. He was exhausted, and he was worried about Mara.

The woman in question was waiting outside her ship, Kay-Too beside her. Her long red hair hung loose and caught in the wind that had been picking up speed all evening. She looked lovely, and lonely, an ancient warrior before battle. He had an urge to kiss her, to smooth away whatever was making her so grim, but the set of her jaw warned him back.

"Right. Here's what we're doing. You and Kay-Too will take Rian's ship and meet Organa on Alderaan. Tell him everything. Round up the staff of everyone currently serving on the Imperial Senate and have them questioned. No stones unturned, you hear? If there's a party, have it cancelled. If there's a Senate meeting, have that cancelled too. You can use my name to do it if you need to. See Grand Moff Tarkin directly for that. He'll help you. And use Kay-Too. He's good at telling when people are lying, believe it or not."

He had stopped maybe two feet away from her, suddenly afraid to get closer. He had a lot of questions after this speech, but just then only one seemed important. "And what are you going to do?"

"I'm going after the detonator."

Cassian opened his mouth, closed it again. There was more going on here, he could feel it. and it had started when she'd been in that cargo hold with Rian.

What had he said to her?

There could only be one thing…

He took one step towards her, and when she took an equally measured step back, he felt it as a physical blow.

"We'll cover more ground if we split up," she said practically, "and I think we both know that detonator is in Anders' possession." Her forehead was scrunched up as if she had one of her headaches, the ones that came on suddenly.

"Mara," he said.

"Don't worry, he won't know what hit him." She smiled coldly. "Shimmer and Boadacks were child's play. It'll be nice to go after someone more challenging, or I'll get soft."

"Mara," he said again. He didn't care about what she was saying, because he knew it was true. The mission, in fact, was almost forgotten in the expression on her face, which had not eased. "Are you in pain?"

She laughed, a breathy sound without joy or mirth, but she didn't answer.

"Is it…is it something to do with being a Jedi?"

Now she looked at him fully, and the heart beneath her eyes was cold as the stone on which they stood.

"I'm afraid I won't be answering any more of your questions, _Captain Andor_."

He joined her in the coldness for a moment, accepted where they stood. "Mara," his voice croaked out a moment later, but it was another man speaking.

She nodded at her droid. "As I said, take Kay-Too with you. He'll be a lot of help." There was sadness on her face as she looked at the droid, as though she were saying goodbye to an old friend. Cassian hoped between the two of them they hadn't broken her.

"You'll need to finish his reprogramming," she went on, "if he's to be of any use to you when this is done. He is still an Imperial, after all."

"Mistress Jade-"

"Stay with him, Kay-Too. That's an order."

She turned back to Cassian. "Pray to the Force we never meet again, Captain. Because I will kill you."

Cassian watched her board her ship without another word. Words were pointless now. Deeds had done all the talking for him. He supposed, somewhere under all that, was the anarchists' whole point. There were some hurts words couldn't mend.

"Come," he said to the droid as Mara's ship's engine turned over, and together they made for the other ship.

Strapping himself into the copilot's chair, he wondered if the giant heap of Imperial metal about to pilot their ship wasn't in fact ordered to crash them into the nearest mountain. But no, Mara wouldn't do that. She needed him to do what she'd told him to do, and she must trust him to do it, at the very least.

As for her own mission, by far the more dangerous…

"She can do it, you know," Kay-Too said beside him, and Cassian looked over at him in shock. The droid's hands were calmly going through his pre-flight checks. "Mistress Jade is a most accomplished assassin. There is a ninety-seven percent chance that she will succeed and come out unharmed, and the other three percent account for variables that are, in my learned and professional opinion, extremely unlikely."

"Thank you, Kay-Too," Cassian said as he began his own preflight checks.

"You can call me 'Kay,'" the droid said. "I could never get Mistress Jade to, but I always like the sound of it."

Despite himself, Cassian smiled. Kay ignited the engines.


	13. Epilogue

Epilogue

"I take it you never saw her again?" Jyn asked beside him.

"Not personally, no," Cassian replied, "but she fulfilled her end of the bargain. She destroyed that detonator, and we were able to remove the bombs from the ships and clean out the anarchists' camp before anyone could get hurt. No one died that day, because of her. Well, except for Anders, and one or two of his guards."

"Saw Gerrera would have liked these anarchists," Jyn said thoughtfully.

"Undoubtedly," Cassian muttered. "Men frustrated with slow change, who just want to fix what they see as wrong in the universe around them."

"Heroes. Monsters. Spies. Jedi."

"Reprogrammed droids." Cassian nodded in the direction of the cockpit. "He took her last order seriously. He's never left my side."

Jyn took a breath. "You sound as if you still admire her. Was it her cleverness as a spy and assassin, or her mysterious Jedi powers?"

Cassian frowned down at her. "Neither. The galaxy doesn't need more spies, or more Jedi. Just more people who do the right thing."


End file.
